‘Get up and Play!’
Thus screamed every angry parent at their child, in an attempt to get them to ditch the screen and play.
Back in our time, we didn’t need that ‘push’ to go outside and play – it was the very norm! In today’s world, physical activities for kids have taken on an all-new significance. Physical games for preschoolers are, indeed, the need of the hour, where it comes to getting your little ones up and moving.
Indoors or outdoors – it doesn’t matter, as long as they ‘move’!
In this article, we at Kangaroo Kids have carefully compiled for you a list of the top preschool activities that will help get your child physically fit. But first, let’s touch upon the importance of physical activities for kids.
Table of Contents
- Physical Activities for Kids: Decoding their Importance
- Preschool Activities: 15 Exciting Physical Games for Preschoolers
Physical Activities for Kids: Decoding their Importance
Physical activities for kids are important for more reasons than one!
- Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight
- Enhancing Social Skills
- Building their Strength, Endurance and Flexibility
Obesity is on the rise these days. Nip it in the bud, by having your preschooler spend sufficient time engaged in physical activity!
‘Play’ is not an activity that is performed only in isolation! When they indulge in physical activities with their friends, they get primed for a lifetime of meaningful social connections.
It’s not enough to simply be in the ‘desired weight range’, after all!
Preschool Activities: 15 Exciting Physical Games for Preschoolers
Ready to kickstart the ‘Physically Fit’ Journey for your little one? Make sure you begin with one of these cool physical activities for kids.
- Musical Chairs
- Musical Hide and Seek
- Skipping
- Toss and Catch
- Home Obstacle Course
- Pretend Play
- Freeze Dance
- Flashlight Tag
- Hopscotch
- Tag
- Target Hopping
- Riding a Tricycle or Scooter
- Bowling
- Swimming
- Throwing Paper Planes
Remember this classic game we would indulge in at birthday parties?
How to Play
Children walk around a line of chairs as the music plays. When the music stops, they must all find a chair and sit down. There is one less chair, so the child without a place to sit is ‘out’! Then a chair is removed and the game resumes, till the last child ‘standing’ – or should we say, ‘sitting’ – wins!
If you’re looking for a ‘musical’ twist to your favourite childhood game, this one’s it!
How to Play
Play music on your phone, and tuck it somewhere out of sight of your toddler. Then watch them navigate their way to find that ‘hidden’ phone!
If you’re having a hard time getting your preschooler to exercise, just hand them a skipping rope and see how they can’t get enough of all that skipping!
Your little one will be fascinated with the mere ‘tossing’ and ‘catching’ of a soft ball.
Bonus: Make it even more fun for them, by adding things like ‘baskets’ and even ‘goalposts’!
Crawling through cardboard boxes on the ground, or even jumping through hula hoops, will make for loads of fun for your little one. There’s no dearth of items that you can find in your house, that can contribute to the making of a cool obstacle course for them to navigate.
You don’t need any elaborate equipment for physical activity. Sometimes, all you need is your hands and feet! Get them to indulge in some fun ‘pretend play’ that involves plenty of physical activity – like hopping like a frog, or crawling like a bear!
Like all other games, this one’s best played when there are more kids involved.
How to Play
Have them dance as the music of their choice plays. When it stops, they must ‘freeze’ in the position they were in at the moment!
All kids love playing ‘dark room’, so they will love this one loads!
How to Play
In a dark room, hand one child a flashlight. Now, they have to ‘tag’ all the other kids in the room, with their ‘beam of light’.
The best games, like this one, have been played over generations.
How to Play
All you have to do, really, is find a space in the outdoors where you can draw the hopscotch grid. Your children will love this game, which has them hopping on one foot and counting along as they navigate the course. Needless to say, it’s fun doing all that ‘balancing’, too!
This one’s a game that will never go out of style, especially with younger kids.
One player is ‘It’, and they have to ‘tag’ another child running away from them, by touching them. Then the child tagged becomes ‘It’, and the game continues!
This one will have them delighted, as they ‘hop like bunnies’!
All you have to do is place a few cardboard cutouts on the floor close to one another (but not too close), and have your child hop from one to the next.
Are they too young to ride a bicycle? No problem! Get them a tricycle or scooter, that they will surely love driving. Plus, it will help prepare them for riding that bicycle when they are older.
Getting them to indulge in a fine game of bowling, does not require a trip to the arcade!
Simply take some empty plastic bottles, and arrange them like the bowling pins in an arcade. Taking a soft ball, have them knock down as many bottles as they can!
By far, one of the best physical activities for kids, this one!
The best part is, little kids take to water like ‘fish’! Get them to swim with a float to begin with, until they learn the finer nuances of swimming.
The simplest joys in life are the best!
Get them to join you in making paper planes, and then to use their arms to see how far they can throw the planes they have created!
We at Kangaroo Kids cannot stress just how important it is to get your preschooler to indulge in physical activity of any kind. We sincerely hope that the games we have outlined for you here, can come to the rescue and get your child to be physically active, if they aren’t already!
